*CURRENT AFFAIRS (28:03:2014)

1. UN general assembly declares Russian annexation of Crimea illegal.
- 58 countries including India abstained from the vote.
- The vote saw only 11 nations supporting the Russian move while 100
were against.
- Unlike the Security Council, Resolutions in the General Assembly are
not legally binding.
2. West Zone captures the 3rd consecutive 'Deodhar Trophy' beating
North Zone by 133 runs in the final of 2013-14 edition.
- The trophy, originated in 1973-74, is named after the so called
'Grand Old Man of Indian cricket' DB Deodhar.
- The annual one-day competition is played among the 5 zonal teams -
North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone.
3. Google has been fined Rs 1 Crore by the Competition Commission of
India (CCI) for unfair trade practices.
- CCI is probing a complaint against the internet giant by
matrimony.com and Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS).
- The charge accuses it of abusing its clout in the markets of online
search and search advertising.
- CCI has also ordered Google to furnish the required documents and
information asked.
4. UN approves international probe into alleged war crimes committed
during Sri Lanka's civil war that ended in 2009 with complete
annihilation of rebel LTTE.
- The enquiry will primarily focus on the carnage at the end of the
military campaign in 2009 which is thought to claim of as many as
40,000 civilian lives.
5. Jammu and Kashmir becomes the first state in the country to declare
all election booths as No Smoking Areas in the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections.
6. Japan frees Iwao Hakamada, the longest-servingdeath row inmate in the world.
- The court suspended his death sentence ordering a retrial as it
found possible fabrication in the evidence by the investigators.
- He, convicted in the murder of a family in 1966, had not been
executed so far due to lengthy appeals process.
7. About 7 million people died in 2012 as a result of air pollution
exposure: World Health Organization
8. Former Indian captain Jude Felix has been appointed as the coach of
the senior men's national hockey team.
- He, who replaces Bhaskaran as such, will work under Chief Coach Terry Walsh.
9. Indian archaeologists claim to have discovered the largest Harappan
site at Rakhigarhi in Hisar district, Haryana.
- At present, Mohenjo-daro (with an area of almost 300 hectares) in
Pakistan is the largest among the 2,000 Harappan sites discovered.
- The researcher recently found two additional mounds there, apart
from the existing 7, which extends the total area of the site to about
350 hectares.